See, I only run into that problem with my mQX. Course, I have flown it a lot more then this one. Did you have nowhere to sit it down or it just got away from ya?

That bird was on my ass. Flying at the softball fields at Woodlawn and there's an osprey nest on one of the light posts in the outfield. Evidently I got too close and the mate swooped down to come kill the heli. I initially tried to run straight up, but he followed me. Came back down to try to land but he stayed close enough that I wasn't comfortable trying to land. Ended up chasing me from one end of the field to the other 4 or 5 times. Finally decided to try a hot landing, he caught up, chopped the pitch down to dodge, predictably planted it in the grass. Mainshaft snapped off and the bird flew away.

Thankfully everything seems excepting the mainshaft. May need a new head since the top of the shaft is seemingly stuck in there. Ah well, no dead birds, no foul.*whew*

Maidened new TX with 450x, no twitch Yay! Now trying to trim the beast after a full system reset (from previously trying to fix twitch). Nothing exciting yet, but after hovering my 450x I don't mind throwing my 120 into lots of flips so that is a plus. Hoping to get final setup complete this week.

That bird was on my ass. Flying at the softball fields at Woodlawn and there's an osprey nest on one of the light posts in the outfield. Evidently I got too close and the mate swooped down to come kill the heli. I initially tried to run straight up, but he followed me. Came back down to try to land but he stayed close enough that I wasn't comfortable trying to land. Ended up chasing me from one end of the field to the other 4 or 5 times. Finally decided to try a hot landing, he caught up, chopped the pitch down to dodge, predictably planted it in the grass. Mainshaft snapped off and the bird flew away.

Thankfully everything seems excepting the mainshaft. May need a new head since the top of the shaft is seemingly stuck in there. Ah well, no dead birds, no foul.*whew*

Haven't had that experience yet. I've had an osprey try to snatch my mQX out of midair and give up when it flew sideways and at him. I've hit a seagull before by accident. I usually fly over at parkside mall. Big open field great for just learning basic stuff (like I am). I've got my AMA and have tried to join the local club but evidently I have to get there before 11 to give them money. I hate mornings.

Haven't had that experience yet. I've had an osprey try to snatch my mQX out of midair and give up when it flew sideways and at him. I've hit a seagull before by accident.

Prior to this it was bees chasing my mCP X. Was unprepared for the raptor attack.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumba

I usually fly over at parkside mall. Big open field great for just learning basic stuff (like I am). I've got my AMA and have tried to join the local club but evidently I have to get there before 11 to give them money. I hate mornings.

Aaah, yeah there is a lot of room out there. May need to make use of that when I'm (infrequently) up in North county.

I keep considering joining Sparks, but having to have AMA membership is a bit bothersome when their activities are becoming increasingly political.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumba

But at least you protected the animal from itself

Yeah, would've been a very bad afternoon for me otherwise. Helicopters and parts are easy enough to replace, more worried about the bird than the heli.

Flew the 450x early afternoon 6 batteries doing piros, fast descents and fast sweepers. Later flew 4 more batteries when higher level winds started gusting enough to turn a shallow dip turn into a near disaster. Figured I'd Iike to keep the canopy unscratched a few more days so landed it.
Flew the Mcpx 6 times, MQX twice before the right front motor finally failed as it had been getting limp.
Oh well, good day all in all. No unexpected...landings.

P_H_C
MCX2,MCPX,mSR,mSRx,MQX,SR,B450,450X,550e 3gx

__________________So many hobbies,interests and places... so little time....

First successful inverted flight/loop/flip/roll today, buzzing around 30' up.
Worked almost exactly with the timing that's worked so far in the sim (UNlike the mCPX), slapping the collective a little due to lawn-dart paranoia. Only two packs, but those eight minutes were some of the most fun I've had flying so far.

First successful inverted flight/loop/flip/roll today, buzzing around 30' up.
Worked almost exactly with the timing that's worked so far in the sim (UNlike the mCPX), slapping the collective a little due to lawn-dart paranoia. Only two packs, but those eight minutes were some of the most fun I've had flying so far.

After a few pulls on your packs at 4 minutes I would bump it up to 5. That is what I did and seems to leave a pretty safe margin of error according to others. After 5 minutes my packs are warm without any puffyness at all. Still had plenty of power at the 5-minute mark to safely return to base and and without rushing it.

I may do that, run once to the LVC in an idle-up low hover after more 3D practice, with an auto landing and Sharpie the actual runtime and date on the side. Then cut off 30s/a minute for safety, and do that again every 3-6 months. Haven't had any puffing at all, and about as warm as if I'd left them on the dashboard for an hour. Then again, they're new 30C packs so that's kind of expected.
Does anyone track how many cycles a given pack has been through, say with a sharpie dot on the side? Worth it? Seems like a good way to make sure you aren't just running one pack into the ground every time you have a free ten minutes to run out and burn through one, or to warn when a pack might be getting on the old side.

Still want to find a car adapter for the charger; not comfortable just clipping the direct-DC leads onto the car battery, as it lists a max input of 11.5-15V, and know some cars can spike up to 18V. Also kind of boring if you're the only one around, waiting the 30m/1h+ or so for the pack to charge up again.

I may do that, run once to the LVC in an idle-up low hover after more 3D practice, with an auto landing and Sharpie the actual runtime and date on the side. Then cut off 30s/a minute for safety, and do that again every 3-6 months. Haven't had any puffing at all, and about as warm as if I'd left them on the dashboard for an hour. Then again, they're new 30C packs so that's kind of expected.
Does anyone track how many cycles a given pack has been through, say with a sharpie dot on the side? Worth it? Seems like a good way to make sure you aren't just running one pack into the ground every time you have a free ten minutes to run out and burn through one, or to warn when a pack might be getting on the old side.

Still want to find a car adapter for the charger; not comfortable just clipping the direct-DC leads onto the car battery, as it lists a max input of 11.5-15V, and know some cars can spike up to 18V. Also kind of boring if you're the only one around, waiting the 30m/1h+ or so for the pack to charge up again.

I would suggest setting the timer so that after a flight the packs are at about 11.2-11.3 volts. This will ensure that you don't go past the 80% rule and will maximize your packs life.
On all of my batteries I put a piece of masking tape on them and then put a tick mark on them for every flight. I like to know how many cycles I have on my batteries just for my own knowledge. In addition to this I also keep track of the number of flights on my B450 and also write down the flight number when ever I do something to the heli. Such as a crash or replacing a part.

After a few pulls on your packs at 4 minutes I would bump it up to 5. That is what I did and seems to leave a pretty safe margin of error according to others. After 5 minutes my packs are warm without any puffyness at all. Still had plenty of power at the 5-minute mark to safely return to base and and without rushing it.

It depends on how hard your flying. On all my 2200 packs I get 4:10 with a curve at 100 98 96 98 100 and that's with sport flying. I'm still mainly tail in but I do consecutive flips/rolls, inverted hovering with punchouts and very high stall turns with piros. My packs come down pretty warm and are 3.7 to 3.73 per cell. I was getting around 4:40 with just loops, rolls and inverted. The full collective stall turns I think are adding the extra drain.....so much fun though.

Your best bet is to invest in a voltage checker you can use at the field. Mine fits in my pocket and was $10. Best investment I made.

Good call on the masking tape; though I like the permanent record, would be easier to write the previous total on the beginning of the tape and just start counting from there with ticks and crosses, instead of adding up dots.

No need for a dedicated checker, as I keep a cheap (verified calibrated) multimeter in the car. About the size of two 9V batteries put together, so more than pocketable.

As I'm still working on getting landings completely solid in crosswinds, my timer is pretty much just my one-minute mark (I haven't noticed a difference on the DX6i as far as the last-minute beep on the timer)... land as soon as safe, but with plenty of time in which to manage it. Little less flying, but also safer and better for the batteries' longevity.

No need for masking tape, grab the app t3ch dad for your phone or tab. Let's you snap a pic of the model and battery and assign batteries to different and/or multiple batteries. Once you set it up, you just add a flight to the model your flying, pck what pack your using and it keeps track of it for you. Also has a crash log too which is very handy.

Yeah, I do mostly hovers and forward flight with some flips and rolls. I/U 1 is 75% throttle which is where I fly at for learning. I/U 2 is 100% which I don't use much. If it feels windy or gusty then I just do orientation hovers which seem to be a biatch in the wind.

As far as keeping track of batteries I write my own serial number on them and keep track in a log book. I'll probably end up writing a flight log program so I can keep track of the bird and battery cell voltage and flight time and returning temperature etc. That way I can track battery performance with more meaningful statistics. The less I have to remember and guess at the better!

T3chdad looks interesting, but no demo seems to be available so leaves me wondering.
Stuff like if you can assign the same battery to multiple craft (and still have a restricted list only showing the compatible batteries). Doesn't seem to have the option to track battery end-temp/voltage, or a way to note if the LVC/alarm was hit, or graph the results (overall or for only a specific craft due to different draw demands) to see a given pack's generalized state of health. Same with no apparent way to keep a scratchpad of notes ('remember to relubricate swashplate!', 'tail servo getting twitchy; get rebuild kit', 'pack puffing badly, replace!', 'need more nitro in this mix') as far as craft/fuel sources without logging it as a crash.
True, three or four bucks is cheap. But a strip of masking tape and a Sharpie seems just about as effective, from what I can see from the screenshots as far as the battery history goes.

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